Adjustable agitator for fabric-cleaning machines

ABSTRACT

An agitator having variable area vanes is provided for an automatic clothes washer. A plurality of arcuate-shaped vanes are secured to the agitator centerpost for rotation and oscillation therewith, and housed within each of the vanes is an arcuate extendible vane element. A control knob is provided adjacent an upper portion of the agitator centerpost and depending from the control knob is a worm gear which cooperates with a gear rack formed on each of the vane elements to selectively extend or retract the vane elements according to the positioning of the control knob by the operator.

United States Patent Inventor Thoma W. Willi-a Valley Station, Ky.

Appl. No. 809,154

Filed Mar. 2 l, 1969 Patented All. 14, 1901 Aseignee General ElectricCompany ADJUSTABLE AGI'IATOR FOR FABRIC- Primary Examiner-William I.Price Assistant Framiner-Philip R. Coe Attorneys-James E. Ospe, Harry F.Manbeck, Jr., Joseph B Furman. Oscar B. Waddell and Frank L. NeuhauserABSTRACT: An agitator having variable area vanes is provided for anautomatic clothes washer. A plurality of arcuateshaped vanes are securedto the agitator centerpnst fur rntation and oscillation therewith, andhoused within each of the vanes is an arcuate extendible vane element. Acontrol knob is provided adjacent an upper portion of the agitatorcenterpost and depending from the control knob is a worm gear whichcooperates with a gear rack formed on each of the vane elements toselectively extend or retract the vane elements ac cording to thepositioning of the control knob by the operator PATENIEU M1624 ranSHIEET 2 [IF 2 INVENTOR. THOMAS W. W\LLIAMS BY 6(HP5 ATTORNEY ADJUSTABLEAGITATOR FOR FABRIC-CLEANING MACHINES BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Thisinvention relates generally to fabric-cleaning machines such as clotheswashers, and more particularly, to an improved agitator for use in suchmachines.

Automatic clothes washers normally include a container means to receiveliquid and the fabrics to be cleaned in that liquid, and some agitationmeans for causing relative motion between various fabrics and theliquid. This agitation means normally takes the form of an agitatormounted in an upright or vertical position within the container andconnected to a drive mechanism so that the agitator is oscillated in asuitable manner to effect washing, usually back and forth in ahorizontal plane.

The washing action is a result of the agitator delivering power to theclothes. This washing power normally is delivered by means of a numberof vanes disposed about the lower portion of the agitator so as tomovethrough the liquid as the agitator is moved by the drive mechanism. Theuniformity of the washing action depends upon the uniformity with whichthe vanes deliver power to the various fabrics. Thus, for a uniformlyclean wash the clothes must be moved within the liquid container so thateach of the fabrics is in turn brought into the area at which the vanesare transferring power. This movement of the clothes is called"turnover.

Optimum agitator design is complicated both by the in creasing varietyof fabrics capable of being laundered in automatic washers, and by theincreased capacity of todays machines. In an earlier era of automaticwasher development, smaller and more predictable clothes loads defined afairly narrow range of optimum power input for proper clothes turnover.Today, however, the automatic washer is typically required, insuccessive wash loads, to a launder 16 pounds of heavy work clothes, andthen 3 pounds of delicate lingerie. Such extreme wash loads obviouslyrequire different amounts of power input for proper turnover, and, as isobvious, if excessive power is delivered to the more delicate washloads, they may be damaged in the washing operation.

In the prior art, a number of expedients have been proposed to providevariable actuator vane area thereby permitting adjustment of the amountof power limited to the clothes load. It is the object of sucharrangements to permit a high-energy transfer to large, durable clothesloads and to provide a lower energy transfer to delicates. However, mostsuch prior art designs provide costly and complicated linkage or otheradjustment systems for achieving variable vane exposure area.Furthermore, the arrangement of most prior art designs has been such asto necessitate the employment of extendible vanes of very limited lengthwhich are not capable of extending outward from the agitator aconsiderable length in order to provide a desired wide range of vanearea adjustment.

It is, accordingly, an object of the present invention to provide a newand improved agitator for use in fabric-cleaning machines such asautomatic clothes washers which provides a simple and inexpensiveadjustable vane mechanism.

It is a further object of my invention to provide such an improvedagitator whereby a wide range of vane area adjustment is enabled.

It is a more specific object of my invention to provide such an improvedagitator wherein the adjustable vanes move on an arcuate trajectorydownwardly and radially outwardly from the axis of rotation of theagitator.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Briefly stated, in accordance with one aspectof the present invention, there is provided an agitator adapted toeffect the cleaning of fabrics in a washing machine or similar devicehaving a liquid and fabric receiving container and a drive mechanism.The agitator comprises a centerpost for mounting generally verticallywithin the container, the centerpost being adapted for connection to thedrive mechanism. A plurality of arcuate-shaped vanes are secured to thecenterpost for rotation and oscillation therewith the vanes extendingoutwardly therefrom to deliver power to the liquid and fabrics withinthe container.

Each of the vanes has an opening at the outer end thereof. A pluralityof arcuate-shaped extensible vane elements are pro vided, each of whichis housed within a separate one of the arcuate-shaped vanes and isadapted for extension through the openings in the vanes. Adjusting meansis disposed adjacent an upper portion of the center post tosimultaneously move each of the vane elements inwardly or outwardlythrough the vane openings a predetermined amount. By this arrangement,the vane elements may be moved along an arcuate trajectory defined bythe arcuate vanes to selectively vary the exposed vane surface area ofthe agitator.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS While the specification concludes withclaims a particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subjectmatter which is regarded as the invention, it is believed the inventionwill be better understood from the following description of thepreferred embodiment taken in connection with the accompanying drawings,in which:

FIG. 1 is a partial side elevational view of a clothes washing machinewhich includes one embodiment of my invention, the view being partiallybroken away and partially in section to illustrate details; and

FIG. 2 is a detailed sectional view of the agitator of the presentinvention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring now to the drawingsand initially to FIG. 1 thereof, there is illustrated an agitator-typeclothes washing machine 10 having a conventional basket or clothesreceiving container 11 provided over its side and bottom walls withperforations l2 and disposed within an outer imperforate casing 13 whichserves as a liquid receptacle. In combination, the basket 11 and the tub13 together form receptacle or container means containing liquid and thefabrics or clothes to be immersed in the liquid. The basket 11 may beprovided with a suitable clothes retaining member 14 for preventingclothes from floating over the top of the basket, and with a balancering 15 to help steady the basket when it is rotated at high speed toextract liquid from the clothes.

Tub I3 is rigidly mounted within an appearance cabinet 16 which includesa cover 17 hingedly mounted in a top portion 18 of the cabinet forproviding access through an opening I9 to the basket I]. As shown, agasket 20 may be provided so as to form a seal between the top of tub l3and portion 18 of the cabinet thereby to prevent escape of moisture andmoist air into the cabinet around the tub. The rigid mounting of tub 13within the cabinet 16 may be effected by any suitable means. As atypical example of one such means I have provided strap members 21 eachof which is secured at one end to an inturned flange 22 of the cabinetand at its other end to the outside of tub I3. At the center of basket11 there is positioned on agitator 23 which is the subject matter of myinvention and which will be discussed in detail later in conjunctionwith FIG. 2.

The clothes basket II and agitator 23 are rotatably mounted. The basketis mounted on a flange 24 of a rotatable hub 25 and the agitator 23 ismounted on a shaft 26 which extends upwardly through the hub 25 andthrough the centerpost of agitator 23 and is secured to the agitator bymeans of splined upper end section 27 so as to drive it. During thecycle of operation of the machine, water is introduced into tub 13 andbasket 11, and the agitator is then oscillated back and forth on itsaxis within the basket; then after a predetermined period of thisaction, basket 11 is rotated at a high speed to centrifugally extractthe liquid from the clothes and discharge it to drain. Following thisextraction operation, a supply of clean liquid is introduced into thebasket and the agitator is again oscillated. During this operation,which constitutes the wash step of the cycle, the liquid is preferablymixed with a suitable treating agent such as a detergent in order toeffect chemical cleansing of the fabrics. Then the basket is rotatedagain at high speed to extract the washing liquid. Following this, asupply of clean liquid is introduced into the basket for rinsing theclothes and once again the agitator is oscillated. Finally, the baket isonce more rotated at high speed to extract the rinse water. Of course,while it is often not done, more than one rinsing operation may beprovided if so desired, and various modifications such as spray rinsesduring a spinning operation may also be provided.

Basket 11 and agitator 23 may be driven through any suitable means. Byway of example, I have shown them as driven from a reversible motor 28through a system including a suitable load-limiting clutch 29 on themotor shaft. A suitable belt 30 transmits power from clutch 29 to atransmission assembly 31 through a pulley 32. Thus, depending upon thedirection of motor rotation, pulley 32 of transmission 31 is driven inopposite directions. The transmission 31 is so arranged that it supportsand drives both the agitator drive shaft 26 and the basket mounting hub25. When motor 28 is driven in the opposite direction, the transmissionrotates basket 11 and agitator 23 together at high speed for centrifugalliquid extraction. While the specific type of transmission mechanismdoes not form part of the invention, reference is made to U.S. Pat. No.2,844,225 issued July 22, 1958 to Mr. James R. Hubbard et a]. andassigned to the assignee of the instant invention. That patent disclosesin detail the structural characteristics of the transmission suitablefor use in the illustrated machine.

ln addition to operating the transmission 31 as described, the motor 28also provides a direct drive through a flexible coupling 33 to a pumpingmechanism, generally indicated by the numeral 34, which may include twoseparate pumps or pumping units 35 and 36 both operated in the samedirection simultaneously by motor 28. Pump 35 has an inlet which isconnected by a conduit 37 to an opening 38 formed at the lowermost pointof the tub 13. Pump 35 also has an outlet which is connected by aconduit 39 to a suitable drain (not shown). Pump 36 has an inletconnected by a conduit 40 to the interior of tub l3 and an outletconnected by a conduit 41 to an inlet nozzle 42 positioned to dischargeinto a filter pan 43. The pumps are formed so that in the spin directionof motor rotation pump 35 will draw liquid from opening 38 throughconduit 37 then discharge it through conduit 39 to drain, and in theother or agitation direction of rotation, pump 36 will draw in liquidthrough conduit 40 and discharge it through conduit 41 and nozzle 42.Each of the pumps is substantially inoperative in the direction ofrotation in which it is not used. The particular form of the pumpassembly 34 is not significant; rather, assembly 34 is representative ofany struc' ture capable of passing liquids selectively out through oneoutlet or another, whether by use of one pump with suitable valving or acombination structure of two pumps.

With this structure then, when the motor is rotated so as to provideagitation, pump 36 draws liquid through conduit 40 from tub l3 anddischarges it through conduit 41 so that liquid passes from nozzle 42and falls into filter pan 43, then down through a number of smallopenings 44 provided in the bottom of the filter pan, and back into thebasket ll. In this manner, the filter pan 43 with its small openings 44causes lint which is separated from the clothes during the washingoperation to be filtered out of the recirculating water, and thusprevents it from being redeposited on the clothes.

The motor 28, clutch 29, transmission 3l, basket ll and agitator 23 forma suspended washing and centrifuging system which is supported by thestationary structure of the machine so as to permit isolation ofvibrations from the stationary structure. it will be understood thatsuch vibrations occur primarily as a result of high-speed spinning ofthe basket 11 with a load of clothes therein. While any suitablesuspension structure may be used, one such structure includes a bracketmember 45 with transmission 31 mounted on the top thereof and motor 28mounted to the underside thereof. The bracket member 45, in turn, issecured at each end thereof to an upwardly extending rigid member 46,and each of the two upwardly extending members 46 is connected to acable 47 supported from the top of the machine. While only a portion ofthe suspension system is shown in FIG. 1, such a vibration isolationsystem is fully described and claimed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,987,190 issuedJune 6, I961 to Mr. John Bochan and assigned to the assignee of thepresent invention.

In order to accommodate the movement which occurs between basket 11 andtub 13 without any danger of leakage therebetween, the stationary tub 13is joined to the upper part of transmission 31 by a flexible boot member48. A member of this type is described and claimed in U.S. Pat. No.2,959,966 issued Nov. 15, I960 to Mr. John Bochan and assigned to theassignee of the instant invention.

Hot and cold water may be supplied to the machine through conduits 49and 50 which are adapted to be connected respectively to sources of hotand cold water (not shown). Conduits 49 and 50 extend into aconventional mixing valve structure 51 having solenoids 52 and 53.Energization of solenoid 52 permits passage of hot water through thevalve to a hose 54, and energization of solenoid 53 permits passage ofcold water through the valve. Energization of both solenoids permitsmixing both hot and cold water in the valve and passage of warm waterinto hose 54. The hose 54 has an outlet 55 positioned to discharge intobasket 11 so that when one or both of the solenoids 52 and 53 areenergized, water passes into basket 11 and tub 13.

The level to which water rises in the basket and tub may be controlledby any suitable liquid level-sensing means. One typical arrangement fordoing this is to provide an opening 56 in the side of tub 13 adjacentthe bottom thereof. The opening 56 is connected through a conduit 57 anda tube 58 to a conventional pressure-sensitive switch device (notshown), which may be positioned within the backsplash 59 of the machine.As the water rises in basket 11 and tub 13 it exerts increasing pressureon a column of air trapped in tube 58 and, at a predetermined pressurelevel, the column of air then trips the pressure-sensitive switch deviceto shut off whichever of solenoids 52 and 53 may be energized. Thebacksplash 59 may contain suitable manual controls, such as that shownat 60, extending therefrom so that the particular fabric cycleincluding, for instance washing and spin speeds, water temperatures, andwater level within the tub l3 and basket 11, etc., may be controlled toeffect the washing of different types of fabrics.

The details of agitator 23 may be seen more clearly in FIG. 2 wherein itis apparent that the upper end of the agitator centerpost has a splinedcore 61 for connection to drive shaft 26. Extending downwardly fromsplined core 61 and integral therewith is a tubular inner centerpoststructure 62 having a flanged lower portion 63 which extends radially,upwardly and downwardly to form a flared skirt 64. Secured to the skirt64 and the inner centerpost structure 62 by means of suitable fasteners65 is an outer centerpost structure 66 which extends upwardly forming anopening which is substantially closed by a cap structure 67.

Secured to a or formed integrally with the outer centerpost structure 66are a plurality of arcuate vanes 68 which extend downwardly from capstructure 67 to a position adjacent the periphery of flared skirt 64where each of the vanes 68 has an opening 69 formed therein. Housedwithin each of the arcuate vanes 68 is an arcuate vane element 70 whichis adapted for extension and retraction through its associated opening69. The vane element 70 of FIG. 1 is shown in a retracted position,while the vane element 70 of PK). 2 is shown partially extended.

It should be understood that the vanes 68 have an inner surface 7l ofconstant arcuate radius, and that vane elements 70 have an outer edge 72of substantially equal arcuate radius. By this arrangement, the vaneelements 70 may be readily extended or retracted along an arcuatetrajectory defined by the inner surfaces 71 of vanes 68. It should alsobe understood that the interior of vanes 68 provides support for thevane elements 70 permitting guided movement of vane elements 70 withinthe vanes 68.

Adjusting means are provided concentric with the tubular innercenterpost structure 62 adjacent an upper portion thereof tosimultaneously move each of the vane elements 70 inwardly and outwardlyas the operator desires. Such adjusting means comprises a control knob73 having a depending worm gear 74 adapted to cooperate with gear racks75 formed adjacent the upper ends of vane elements 70. Control knob 73has a collar portion 76 which extends through the annular space 77between the inner centerpost structure 62 and cap structure 67 forconnection to worm gear 74. By rotating control knob 73, warm gear 74will cause gear racks 75 and vane elements 70 to move inwardly oroutwardly, depending on the direction of rotation of control knob 73.

Inner centerpost structure 62 acts as a bearing surface for rotation ofworm gear 74 and control knob 73. Atop the centerpost is secured asplined cap member 78 which serves the dual function of preventing fluidfrom entering the splined core 61, and providing a frictional matingsurface for supporting and driving filter pan 43. Vane elements 70 maybe made of any suitable material and, in the preferred embodiment of mydevice, are made relatively flexible at the outer ends thereof so as toprovide a gentle agitation to the fabrics within the basket 11.

As was previously mentioned, the agitator of my invention isparticularly adapted for use on automatic clothes washers wherein it isdesirable to provide an agitator having a variable vane area which maybe increased for heavy durable wash loads and decreased for delicatelight loads. From the foregoing description it should now be apparentthat the present invention, by providing adjustable vane elements whichmay be extended or retracted along an arcuate trajectory outwardly anddownwardly from the agitator centerpost, provides such a desired featurewith the advantage of a significantly wider range of settings than thoseof most prior art devices.

As will be evident from the foregoing description certain aspects of theinvention are not limited to the particular details of the constructionof the example illustrated, and it is contemplated that various othermodifications or applications will occur to those skilled in the art. Itis, therefore, intended to cover such modifications and application asdo not depart from the true spirit and scope of the invention.

What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the UnitedStates is:

1. An agitator adapted to effect the cleaning of fabrics in a washingmachine or similar device having a liquid and fabric receiving containerand a drive mechanism, the agitator comprising:

a centerpost for mounting generally vertically within the container,said centerpost being adapted for connection to the drive mechanism;

a plurality of arcuate vanes secured to a said centerpost for rotationand oscillation therewith, said vanes extending outwardly therefrom todeliver power to the liquid and fabrics within the container, each ofsaid vanes having an opening at the outer end thereof;

a plurality of arcuate extensible vane elements, each of said vaneelements being housed within a separate one of said vanes and adaptedfor extension through said openings in said vanes;

adjusting means disposed adjacent and upper portion of said centerpostto simultaneously move each of said vane elements inwardly or outwardlythrough said vane openings; and

said adjustment means comprising a rack of gear teeth formed integrallywith the upper end of each of said a vane elements and an adjustmentcontrol knob concentrically positioned about the upper end of saidcenterpost,

said control knob having a depending worm gear adapted to cooperatesimultaneously with each of said racks of said gear teeth; wherebyrotation of said control knob in one direction will cause the outwardextension of said vane elements through said openings and rotation inthe opposite direction will cause retraction of said vane elements. 2.The invention of claim 1 wherein each of said vane elements arerelatively flexible.

1. An agitator adapted to effect the cleaning of fabrics in a washingmachine or similar device having a liquid and fabric receiving containerand a drive mechanism, the agitator comprising: a centerpost formounting generally vertically within the container, said centerpostbeing adapted for connection to the drive mechanism; a plurality ofarcuate vanes secured to a said centerpost for rotation and oscillationtherewith, said vanes extending outwardly therefrom to deliver power tothe liquid and fabrics within the container, each of said vanes havingan opening at the outer end thereof; a plurality of arcuate extensiblevane elements, each of said vane elements being housed within a separateone of said vanes and adapted for extension through said openings insaid vanes; adjusting means disposed adjacent and upper portion of saidcenterpost to simultaneously move each of said vane elements inwardly oroutwardly through said vane openings; and said adjustment meanscomprising a rack of gear teeth formed integrally with the upper end ofeach of said a vane elements and an adjustment control knobconcentrically positioned about the upper end of said centerpost, saidcontrol knob having a depending worm gear adapted to cooperatesimultaneously with each of said racks of said gear teeth; wherebyrotation of said control knob in one direction will cause the outwardextension of said vane elements through said openings and rotation inthe opposite direction will cause retraction of said vane elements. 2.The invention of claim 1 wherein each of said vane elements arerelatively flexible.